The Corner at the Center: Migrant Labor, Difference, Relationality and the Making of Berlin Público
Filiz, Anlam (Summer 2018)
Abstract
Turks in Germany find themselves at the intersection of two seemingly contradictory globally rising phenomena: anti-migrant sentiments and pro-diversity discourses. Turkish migrants are seen simultaneously as “Muslim outsiders” and as faces of celebrated “cultural diversity.” Either way, Turks seem to be “culturally different” from the rest of the German society. The fact that Turkey increasingly appears as an authoritarian Islamic country outside of Europe enhances this overwhelming perception.
This dissertation analyzes the ways in which Turkish business owners and workers challenge and rework their assumed “cultural difference” in Germany through “culture work” in Berlin’s corner shops (spätis). Culture work entails material and non-material exchanges, affective labor, aesthetic labor, social labor and the labor of Berlin’s presumed neighborhood culture. These performances simultaneously nationalize, culturalize and ethnicize these shops as Turkish/foreign as well as local/quintessentially Berliner. Turkish business owners and workers also accumulate different forms of “diversity capital” (linguistic and sensory capital) which mark Berlin as a “cosmopolitan” and “hip” city.
Together, these processes demonstrate that migrants’ frequently presumed difference from their “host cultures” is produced in their host countries. Also, these migrants’ diversity and culture work help mark them simultaneously as outsiders and as insiders. Thus, this dissertation helps shed light on how migrants not only respond to the changing ways “cultural difference” is defined and experienced but also participate in these transformations.
Table of Contents
Ch 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1
Migrant Businesses……………………………………………………......................8
What is a Späti?..........................................................................................................11
Who are Späti Owners?..............................................................................................19
Azad…………………………………………………………………………21
Selim………………………………………………………………………...23
Hasan………………………………………………………………………..23
Nazim………………………………………………………………………..24
Cihan………………………………………………………………………...25
Who are Späti Workers?.............................................................................................26
Sevgi………………………………………………………………………...27
Ayse…………………………………………………………………………29
Sultan………………………………………………………………………..30
Gabriela..…………………………………………………………………….31
What is Späti Work?...................................................................................................32
Subjection…………………………………………………………………………...34
Migrants and their “Host Societies”………………………………………………...37
Transnational Political Context…..………………....................................................39
“Multikulti” Berlin………………..………………....................................................41
Methodology and a Turkish Researcher in Germany……………………………….45
Organization of the Dissertation………………………………………….................61
Ch. 2—Nationhood, Migration and Difference at Europe’s Centers and Corners……63
Turkey: The “Corner” of Europe……………………………………………………65
Turkey and the EU…………………………………………………………………..69
German Histories of Diversity……………………………………………………....72
Turkish Migration to Germany……………………………………………………...77
Islam in Germany and Europe………………………………………………………80
“Cultural Differences” in Europe…………………………………………………...83
West German Laws Regarding “Foreigners” after World War II…………………..86
The Merkel Era……………………………………………………………………...88
Berlin’s Financial Troubles…………………………………………………………90
Rebranding Berlin as a “Creative City”…………………………………………….94
Turks in Post–Cold War Berlin……………………………………………………..96
Ch. 3—Ambivalent Inclusions: Stigmatizing, Celebrating and Consuming Differences in Germany……………………………………………………………………………………99
European Islams…………………………………………………………………….99
Transnational Politics of Difference………………………………………………104
Spatializing Differences…………………………………………………………...114
Consuming Differences……………………………………………………………117
“Consuming Diversity” as a Political Act?..............................................................120
Ch. 4 – Turkish Migrants and Urban Struggles………………………………………..124
The Curious Case of Sunday Bans………………………………………………...126
Spätis as “Tourist Shops”………………………………………………………….128
“Save the Spätis!”………………………………………………………………….131
Increasing Rents and Displacements………………………………………………136
Berlin’s Urban Social Movements……………………………………...................138
“Help, Tourists are Coming!”……………………………………………………..142
Späti Owners Embracing the Newcomers………………………………………...144
Ch. 5 –Späti Labor as Productive Labor……………………………………………….150
Withheld Amiabilities……………………………………………………………..152
Emotional and Affective Labor…………………………………………………....157
Fluid Kinship Terms …………….……………………………………………….160
Negotiating Gendered Vulnerabilities………………………………..……………163
The Dark Side………………………………………..…………………………….169
Ch. 6 – Exchanging Berlin………………………………………………………………175
Späti Exchanges……………………………………………………………….…..176
Exchanges beyond Economy……………………………………………………...179
Synchronizing with the Neighborhood………………………………....................183
Speedy Exchanges………………………………………………………………...188
Dexterity…………………………………………………………………...191
Memory…………….……………………………………………………...192
Exchanges with no Immediate Monetary Aspect………………………………….197
Non-material and Non-monetary Exchanges………………….………….……….200
Ch. 7 – Making a Migrant Shop, Making Berlin: The Intertwined Work of Foreignness and Locality………………………………………………………………………………204
Performativity of Migranthood and Locality……………………….…………...206
Performing Labor, Accumulating Capital……………………..………………...208
Linguistic Capital…………………………………………………………210
Sensory Capital……...……………………………………………………213
Aesthetic Labor…………………………………………………………...217
Social Labor………………………………………………………………223
The Labor of Berlin’s Neighborhood Culture………………………..…..229
Ch. 8 – Conclusion: Relationality through Difference………………………………..233
References Cited………………………………………………………………………...246
List of Figures
Figure 1: An advertisement for a späti……………………….....…………….…………..13
Figure 2: The seating area in front of a späti with a table, two benches and a chair……...14
Figure 3: The colorful beer-scape in a späti……………………………………………….16
Figure 4: A map of Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union......................66
Figure 5: Berlin (marked in red) as situated in Germany………………………………….91
Figure 6: Map of Berlin’s official districts……………………………….………………..92
Figure 7: A stall at Berlin's Maybachufer “Turkish market”…………………..…………119
Figure 8: Stalls at Berlin’s Maybachufer “Turkish market.”……………………………..120
Figure 9: A sticker of the Green Party on a gutter in Neukölln…………………………..135
Figure 10: “Neighborhood instead of money” written on the side of an apartment building in North Neukölln………………………………………………..…………………………...142
Figure 11: “Fight for your neighborhood” written next to the anarchist symbol Circle-A on a wall on the Kreuzberg street Wrangelstraße……………………………………………….143
Figure 12: Plant seeds that a customer left in a shop for a friend to pick up…………..….198
Figure 13: A späti decorated with items from a relative………………………….…….…213
Figure 14: Black and white pictures of various famous figures on top of multicolored drink bottles in a späti.………………………………………………………………………..…...215
Figure 15: The Turkish evil eye on top of multicolored German candies on a späti wall…216
Figure 16: “Turks Out”……………………………………………..………………………235
Figure 17: “Stop Nazis” by Jusos, a faction of Germany's social democratic SPD....……..236
List of Tables
Table 1: Population Statistics of Germany in 2016………………...……………………..76
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